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While reading the book, Our Kids it is easy to see that the main idea of the book is that income inequality has expanded over the years. This has made an economic divide in children over the years. The 1959 generation experienced a significant economic and educational change, but their children saw “no educational development beyond their parents.” (7-8). The book states, “That nationwide increase in class inequality – how the class-based opportunity gap among young people was widened in recent decades – is the subject of this book.” (19). Along with all of this, page twenty-nine talks about poor kids now are in much worse shape than their peers then. Though there is a positive when looking back at the years – the race and gender issues are getting less bad, but as mentioned, class is worsening. Putnam believes this happened because of “globalization, technological change and the subsequent increase on ‘returns to education’, de-unionization, superstar compensation, changing social norms, and post-Reagan public policy” (35). On page thirty-nine this book also talks about how education shows this issue and gap. It explains the gap as “increasing …show more content…
This example was seen with Clara and Ricardo. The book talks about the importance of which school one attends, but also whom one goes to school with. Page 169 discusses anti-academic peers having huge impacts on students. So if an individual starts hanging out with a classmate who is uninterested in academics, that individual will most likely follow in that classmates steps. Along with this, extracurricular activities vary by economic class as well. Wealthier children have a better chance of getting advantages for college applications, social skills, and practical knowledge, as the book
In Stevie Cameron’s essay “Our Daughters, Ourselves,” she proclaims “ We tell our bright, shining girls that they can be anything: firefighters, doctors, policewoman, lawyers, scientists, soldiers, athletes, artists. What we don't tell them, yet, is how hard it will be. Maybe, we say to ourselves, by the time they’re older it will be easier for them than it was for us.” My parents raised my sisters and I very congruous with this view. They would always tell us that we could do or be anything we wanted when we got older. However, contrary to Cameron’s apprehension on the matter, my parents always told us how difficult it would be straight from the beginning. They told us how financially strenuous becoming a doctor would be. They told us how
In Confronting Inequality, Paul Krugman discusses the cost of inequality and possible solutions. Krugman argues to say that it is a fantasy to believe the rich live just like the middle class. Then, he goes into detail about how middle class families struggle to try to give their children a better life and how education plays a factor in children’s future lives. For example, children’s ability to move into higher education could be affected by their parents economic status. Also, He discusses how politicians play a role in the inequality, because most of politicians are in the upper economic class. Finally, Krugman says how we could possibly have solutions to these various inequalities, but how America won’t get
He points out the differences between upper class and lower class family life; upper class have more successful marriages and are better prepared the bear children, and so their children are better off than the lower class children (61-79). But his assumptions of the upper class are broad and could be easily disproven by many families across America, and simply having less money does not make lower class families worse than upper class. Putnam then goes into parenting differences across the classes. He states that higher class parents are more likely to spend more money, time, and energy on their children, and thusly are being parented more positively than the lower class who are likely to spend less (109-134). Again, Putnam’s assumptions, while seemingly proven by data, can still be thought of as too broad to that just because upper class have more to spend on their children, that they provide better parenting. Many lower class parents who might be doing an excellent job parenting, even better than some upper class parents, seem to be discredited or overlooked. Putnam’s last few points about the opportunity gap are reflected in the schools (160-190) and communities (206-226). Simply put, due to where they can afford to live and go to school, upper class kids have far more social support and more
Lichter,Daniel T. and David J. Eggebeen. 1987. “Rich kids, Poor kids: Changing Family Structure and Income Inequality Among American Children.” Paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, 23-27 Aug., Cincinnati, OH. 12 May 2014
In her article “When Class Became More Important to a Child’s Education Than Race,” Sarah Garland (2013) argues that money income is more important to a child's education than race. In this article Sarah states that children who have parents with low incomes do not get the same opportunity as children with parents who have higher income.
Besides race, the scholar also reveals how childhoods are unequal based on social class. Drawing from the American society, there are several social classes. For each class, there are unique pathways of lives followed and these usually influence both the educational and work outcomes. To ...
“Confronting Inequality” by Paul Krugman opens up our eyes to the fact that, in America, we are becoming more and more unequal based on our standings in society. Our standings in society is directly related to amount of money that we make and what class our parents were in while we were growing up. However, being judged based on our parents’ status is not justifiable. America is full of injustice when it comes the social structure of it’s’ citizens. The majority of America used to belong to the middle class, now there is less middle class and a widening gap between the high class and the low class of people. Yet not much is being done to correct this injustice. In fact, it seems that the more we do, the farther the gap widens. Why is
equal education; however, through family income, race, and gender we can see that not much has
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said:“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” Mr. Roosevelt was indicating that education is key to ensuring a positive future for our country. Years have passed since his presidency, and many can argue that America’s educational system has improved, but that still remains to be seen. While it is true that education has gotten more focus in recent years, as highlighted by the “No Child Left Behind Act,” it does not mean that the system is fully developed enough to aid all of America’s children. Now, the average American is just that: average. Children generally receive B’s and C’s, average grades, in school if they are lucky enough to be in a good school system. Literacy rates are lower than they seem, and not enough people are properly motivated to do well in school. Forms of entertainment and parental influence, which also play a large role in the development of children into successful, productive adults, are not where they should be with respects to education. Much more needs to be done to improve the educational system of the entire country. Preschool should be made mandatory to help individuals reach their full potential and achieve what only a minority of today’s society is currently capable of.
Education is now more important than it has ever been. Because it is the law that every child receives an education, most people believe that all children are getting an equal education. But, that is not the truth; low-income children are receiving poorer quality education than middle-class children. These children also experience racial inequality, and they live in an unbreakable low-income cycle, all of which are things that have an effect of the quality of education a child is receiving. As stated by Brooks and Duncan (1997), "How does the relative lack of income influence children 's day-to-day lives? It is through inadequate nutrition; fewer learning experiences; instability of residence; lower quality of schools;
The American Dream, the national promise of equal opportunity and the endless possibilities of economic mobility, has and is still deeply inculcated in American culture. However, there is less economic mobility in the United States than originally thought as proven by many studies of economists, and therefore refutes the basic ideas of the American Dream. Class, one of the major causes to the decrease in economic mobility, remains a sensitive subject in America. This sensitivity stems from popular culture ideals of not debating or discussing class as well as the many myths Americans and foreigners are trapped into believing. Variations in the American life-styles, a component of the ideas of class presented by Mantsios, is another factor to the reduction of economic mobility. This variation is mainly a result of the diversity in the United States and its heterogeneous society. Race, a social construct, is also a major source to economic mobility. Through the help of the media, society has shaped Americans into associating success and wealth with Caucasians, and failure and poverty with minorities. Another major cause to the decline in economic mobility is parental influence, the idea of a child following or straying away from their parent or guardian’s footsteps. Education, America’s token to success, also determines an individual’s economic mobility. In American culture, it is believed that by furthering or completing education automatically guarantees individuals endless opportunities to a job, increased income and upward mobility. In conclusion, class, race, parental influence and education are all interrelated factors to economic mobility.
Class Separation lowers a person’s opportunity to achieve the American dream. As the separation between class increases, there is less possibility of achieving the American dream. Class separation has been around for a while. The higher class has higher prospect of achieving the American dream whereas the lower class does not. The separation between the class and its affect on achieving the American dream is demonstrated in the novel Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, a political cartoon, The Great GAPsby society, an article by David Cay Johnson, Richest Are Leaving even the Rich Far Behind and Shadowy Lines That Still Divide by Janny Scott. Even though some argue that the class separation does not affect the ability of achieving the American Dream, these articles clearly explain how it does.
The Quality of a child’s education often either limits or opens up a world of opportunities. Those who study the purpose of public education and the way it is distributed throughout society can often identify clear correlations between social class and the type of education a student receives. It is generally known by society that wealthy families obtain the best opportunities money can buy. Education is a tool of intellectual and economical empowerment and since the quality of education is strongly influenced by social class, a smaller portion of the American population obtains the opportunities acquired from a top notch education. Many people believe that educational inequalities are perpetuated from the interests of specific classes, but some researchers like John Gatto believe that there are even stronger social forces in play. In the essay “Against Schools” the author John Gatto presents three arguments: (1) that are educational system is flawed, (2) that the American educational system is purposely designed to create a massive working class that is easy to manipulate, and (3) alternative teaching methods should be applied to teach children to think for themselves. In this essay I will be summarizing and relating each of these arguments to other educational essays. Also, I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument.
Furthermore, Chapter 15 begins to explain educational inequality. In the United States, education is available but not to every child in the same way. Different social-classes means different schools, instructions, criteria, rates, and times. In addition to class differences, races and ethnics unfortunately play a role in educational achievement. For example, in general, African Americans, Latino/a’s, and Native Americans usually do worse in school than white or Asian American students
In an education journal, Anyon (“Social”) provides the reader with the concept that there are four different types of schools, working class schools, middle-class schools, affluent professional schools, and executive elite schools, after observing five schools. The working class schools are made up of parents with blue-collar jobs, with less than a third of the fathers being skilled, and the majority of them being semiskilled or unskilled. “Approximately 15 percent of the fathers were unemployed… approximately 15 percent of the families in each school are at or below the federal ‘poverty’ level…the incomes of the majority of the families…are typical of 38.6 percent of the families in the United States” (Anyon, “Social”). In a more recent study conducted by Anyon (“What”, 69), she states that,